text: By . Ted Thornhill . Smog and air pollution are lingering environmental problems in China. But a city in the northwestern region is determined to fight against dirty air using nothing more complicated than plain old tap water. Recently, local residents in Lanzhou, capital of northwest Chinas Gansu province, found that two giant sprayers had been set up at the Dongfanghong Square where a subway station of the city's Metro Line 1 is under construction. Will they see clearly now? The water sprayers will throw pulverized water 2,000 feet into the air to dispel pollution . Grand cannon: The sprayers have been placed next to construction works for a new subway station . Size matters: The cannons are enormous and have been getting a lot of attention from passers-by . The two long-range sprayers are able to pulverize and spurt out tap water to wipe out dust and smog within a radius of 600 meters to reduce air pollution caused by the metro construction. Martyn Chipperfield, Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of Leeds, said the water will cling on to the pollutants and bring them back down to earth. He told MailOnline: 'Lanzhou has a big problem with smog, like lots of Chinese cities. This is a small-scale effort to damp down the dust. The water will go up as a fine mist, and stick to the dust and form larger particles - and fall back down to the surface under gravity. It's basically replicating rain on a local level.' This does of course mean that anyone in the vicinity is likely to get quite mucky. However, Professor Chipperfield said that 'it will stop dust spreading over a wider area'. It won't stop pollution elsewhere, though, he added. Earlier this year Chinese scientists said that pollution 900 miles away in Beijing was so dense that its effects were comparable to that of a nuclear winter. It has been predicted that if enough nuclear bombs were detonated, so many particles would be thrown into the air that the sun could be blocked out enough to alter the weather and damage the food supply. Issue: Pollution is a major problem in many Chinese cities . Calamity: Earlier this year the pollution in Beijing was said by one expert to be having a similar effect to that of a nuclear winter . This process was under way in China’s capital city and six northern provinces, according to He Dongxian from China Agricultural University’s College of Water Resources and Civil Engineering.She warned that the toxic smog was hindering photosynthesis of plants and that if it lingers much longer, it could affect food production, according to The Guardian. Pollution had been so severe that aircraft were grounded, roads closed and tourists numbers hit, while the direct danger posed to human health was underlined by the World Health Organisation, whose readings in Beijing in February had alarming results. It was reported that the level of PM 2.5 particles, a key measure of pollution because they are small enough to be assimilated into the blood stream, reached 505 micrograms per cubic metre, far higher than the maximum level it considers to be safe, which is 25. Authorities have introduced anti-pollution policies and often pledged to clean up the environment but the problem has not eased. It remains to be seen whether the water sprayers can form part of a long-term solution.